‘I went from tycoon to sleeping on floor’

HE was the poster boy property developer who fronted an RTÉ show during the boom in which he gave young adults tips on buying their first home.

But former multi-millionaire John McGuire has told how his business empire collapsed overnight, leaving him millions in debt and even forcing him to rent out his own home and sleep on a mattress in an office block.

Mr McGuire, 39, helped dozens of grown-up children make a break from their parents and get their first step on the property ladder in the popular TV series I’m An Adult, Get Me Out Of Here, which first aired in 2005.

At the same time, at the height of the Celtic Tiger, the Dubliner was rapidly building a property portfolio that would just two years later be worth over €20 million, while simultaneously reaping a fortune from his busy mortgage company, First Credit.

But in his first public interview for years, a visibly drawn-looking Mr McGuire spoke candidly about how he became a massive victim of the crash which left him in the red by a crippling €10m and a lifetime of debt he now struggles to pay off every month.

Charting his spectacular fall to the day Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, he told how the phones of his once busy mortgage company stopped ringing overnight, while the value of his vast property empire nosedived to the point where they became worthless.

Speaking to Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ’s The Saturday Night Show, he said the two years he endured from that day took a huge toll on him, adding: “I spent two years going to work and getting the crap knocked out of me every day.”

However, he insisted he has hope for the future, having turned a corner and re-invested in a number of businesses, which he says are starting to grow and help him pay off his colossal €42,000-a-month mortgage for loans owned on his property portfolio.

Refusing at first to confide in family of friends, he admitted he had to sink four pints on a Friday evening before he was in the right frame of mind to talk to anyone.

“A lot of 2009 was spent not sleeping, not able to stop the cogs turning in my head. Then the realisation came it wasn’t temporary.

“Then I started to talk about it all the time. I’d accepted and knew then that my way out of it was to trade out of it.”

Knowing he would be unable to get a loan from the bank, he sold off all assets which he owned outright, including a property in Dubai, his car and even rented out his home. He ploughed all the money into a couple of ventures — an online insurance company and a Dublin bar.

And with cautious optimism, he says the businesses are going well enough for him to have taken on 30 staff.

“I owe €42,000 a month on my mortgages, but I’m making about €40,000. I have to move from there and get it to €50,000 and €60,000. I was never going to disappear with a million like other people have.

“The businesses are flying. I’m back. Every month is still a struggle, but I’m an entrepreneur and I’ll get through this.”